Dirt Cheap, Self Watering Grow Buckets

Self Watering Grow Buckets are exactly that, maintenance free, weed free, self watering, and soil-less. They’re 5-gallon pails that are completely effortless once you’ve created them. All you have to do it pick the fruits and vegetables from this hydroponic grow system.

More Ideas You'll Love

Here’s how to make your own affordable self watering grow bucket system that you can reuse year after year. Please note that we’ve included a shortened pdf printable version at the very bottom as well.

Self Watering Grow Buckets

We’ve made a concerted effort to grow more food at home to save money and due to concerns over the lack of nutrients (and quality) due to the rapid increase of GMO (genetically modified organism) produce. Like many families, we have a very limited budget, growing space as well as very little time.

Choosing the Buckets

More Ideas You'll Love

Oftentimes you can pick up FREE Food grade 5-gallon plastic buckets by simply asking local restaurant managers if they have any that you could have. You’ll want to use food-grade buckets to avoid any potential BPA contamination. To be sure the bucket is “food safe” look for the HDPE 2 symbol on the bottom of the bucket.

Choosing the Reservoir Bucket

More Ideas You'll Love

The reservoir bucket is the container that holds the water for the self watering grow buckets. Hench the self-watering part. The size of the reservoir bucket that you choose is going to be based on a number of factors such as:

The number of Plants/Grow Buckets you intend to use

How often you want to tend to the reservoir to refill it

the humidity in your area

the size of the area you have to work with- are you building this indoors, is it on a patio, etc. Keep in mind that a gallon of water weighs 8 lbs- so a 35-gallon reservoir would add 280 pounds of additional weight if this was kept on a deck, balcony or patio

What you happen to have on hand

When deciding on the number of buckets to add, keep in mind that the plants will need room for adequate air circulation to allow excess humidity to be removed (otherwise, you’ll end up with fungal issues on your plants!), as well as the potential for light blocking.

How Does the Self Watering Grown Buckets Work?

More Ideas You'll Love

Water is held in a reservoir, which is then connected to a smaller bucket containing a float valve which controls the water flow. The water flows by gravity to each of the grow buckets, filling only to the line which is determined by the placement of the float valve.

In our bucket the float valve allows only 4-5″ of water to flow before automatically shutting off. The aeration holes on the grow buckets begin about 6-7″ from the bottom of the bucket. The plants wick the necessary water and nutrients and grow effortlessly.

What do you need to start?

More Ideas You'll Love

The grow buckets are initially filled with a special water wicking medium that naturally draws water to the plant. Please be aware that you cannot use regular potting soil or compost in these buckets as it will NOT work.

You must use a soil-less mixture that consists of the following sphagnum peat moss (at least 60%), perlite, vermiculite, dolomitic limestone, wetting agent, and Mycorrhizae. It is possible to use coconut coir or other peat based mixes, but be sure to add both perlite and dolomite lime as well.

More Ideas You'll Love

Now, if you’re not a fan of mixing your own soil-less mix, you can get this in a commercially prepared product called Pro-Mix BX Mycorrhizae. While it can be ordered online, you’ll likely find a cheaper source by searching for distributors in your area. We used ONE 3.8 Cubic Foot Bag of Mix per five buckets.

Prepare Each Grow Bucket

Starting 6″ from the bottom of each of your grow buckets, drill aeration holes. Do not drill below the 6″ line of your bucket, or they will leak, defeating the purpose. (In case you’re wondering how many holes- we made 9 rows of 4 holes in each grow bucket, (kind of like a Connect 4 game!).

More Ideas You'll Love

Using a 3/4″ step drill bit, drill one 3/4″ hole at the very bottom of each grow bucket. This is where you’ll be connecting your water lines. (Yes, I know the picture shows 9/16- keep going until the hole is 3/4″!!)

More Ideas You'll Love

While it’s still wet, immediately slip the rubber grommet into place in the 3/4″ hole that you’ve just drilled. Use a paper towel or soft cloth to wipe away any excess caulking that forms. You may want to wear gloves, caulking is nasty stuff to try to wash off the skin.

More Ideas You'll Love

Then slip the T-shaped 1/2″ connector barb into the rubber grommet. This will provide a snug, watertight fitting. Half-inch barbed fittings are available at Lowes, Home Depot, local hardware stores, hydroponics supply stores, as well as on Amazon.

Next, place the 10-inch colander into the grow bucket. In the event that you need to trim the handles, use an Exacto knife and score the edge of the handle (cutting away from you). Then simply gently bend the scored handle and they’ll snap right off with almost no effort.

Preparing the Grow Bucket for Young Plants

More Ideas You'll Love

Place the fabric bag into the bucket, folding the edge over the bucket. Now’s the time to trim off those handles, you won’t be needing those. You’re probably wondering why you need the bag at all- well, for starters it’s going to hold your soil-less mixture. The roots of your plants will grow to the porous fabric of the bag.

As the roots become exposed to air, (aka air root pruning), they dry out and die. The bag allows the plant to produce dense, very fine feeder roots, which incidentally also prevents root circling that you see in “potted” plants. These feeder roots allow for better nutrient and water absorption which in turn leads to better growth rates and higher yields.

More Ideas You'll Love

Fill the bottom of the bucket with water. Add a layer of your soilless growing mixture. Soak it with the hose, add a layer of slow-release natural fertilizer. Add more growing mix, water, it’s imperative that the layers are initially wet or it will not activate the wicking ability of the product, causing your plants to dry out and die. Repeat until the bucket is full, add a light layer of fertilizer near the top as well.

More Ideas You'll Love

Cover the top of the bucket with heavy-duty black plastic. Since the inside of the Pro-Mix BX bag is black, we’re simply reusing it, cutting it to fit our buckets. Secure the plastic to the bucket with string, rubber band or any method that works best for you. This plastic sheeting will help reduce water loss through evaporation. Cut a small “X” in the top of the bucket and add your young plant.

How to Assemble the Float Valve Bucket and Reservoir

More Ideas You'll Love

That’s it! Simply connect the water reservoir bucket to the float valve (automatic watering bucket). Make sure the reservoir is filled and check it periodically. This hydroponic grow system is perfect for fruits, vegetables, and herbs. It’s easy to maintain and remains weed-free.

More Ideas You'll Love

I Literally have not had to water them or touch the plants at all. The only thing that I’ve done is sprinkle diatomaceous earth ( a natural pesticide) on our patio to keep ants off my plants. No other insect or pest repellent has been necessary.

More Ideas You'll Love

Summer squash and zucchini also grow well. In fact, we had luck growing cucumbers and watermelon as well, but be sure to provide something for the plants to vine on.

Conclusion

As you can see, the self watering grow buckets were the perfect solution for our family. We wanted to create a hydroponic grow system that could produce food organically, and be reused year after year. We’ve now had our DIY grow system in place for over 6 years and it still works wonderfully every year.

Melissa Burnell, known to her friends and fans as "Liss," grew up in Southern Maine, now residing in sunny South Carolina. As a busy Wife, Mother of two sons, an avid photographer, and self-employed entrepreneur, Liss understands the value of both time and money.

I have a bell pepper plant I planted (as a seed) in dirt. It’s 3 years old now, but for the life of me I cannot get any large peppers on the plant. I basically have ‘mini foods’ growing. How in the world do you get the peppers to really grow?

It’s probably magnesium deficient. Give it a boost using a a bit of epsom salt dissolved in warm water. There’s an article about this in the gardening section.

Hi. So I’m trying to figure out what you use for nutrition for the plants please?

“Fill the bottom of the bucket with water. Add a layer of your soilless growing mixture. Soak it with the hose, add a layer of slow release natural fertilizer. Add more growing mix, water, it’s imperative that the layers are initially wet or it will not activate the wicking ability of the product, causing your plants to dry out and die. Repeat until the bucket is full, add a light layer of fertilizer near the top as well.”

We’ve also used Live fish in the barrel as natural fertilizer but noticed certain plants didn’t grow as well, our Lemon tree and coffee plants, specifically.

“Fill the bottom of the bucket with water. Add a layer of your soilless growing mixture. Soak it with the hose, add a layer of slow release natural fertilizer.

Add more growing mix, water, it’s imperative that the layers are initially wet or it will not activate the wicking ability of the product, causing your plants to dry out and die. Repeat until the bucket is full, add a light layer of fertilizer near the top as well.”

We’ve also used Live fish in the barrel as natural fertilizer but noticed certain plants didn’t grow as well, our Lemon tree and coffee plants, specifically.

Ok, cool. I made the mistake of trying to do liquid nutrition and it’s just a lot of work. Thanks for the advice.

I’m excited to try this system out. Just one question on the fabric bags. Are they long enough to reach the water at the bottom of the bucket to absorb the water? I’m assuming this is how the water gets to the roots and material or is it more like a aeroponic system? Thanks!

The bags go all the way to the bottom of the colander. The soil-less perlite mixture wicks the water to the roots, the bags simply hold everything together and prevent the perlite mixture from entering the water lines and gumming things up. We’ve used cheesecloth in the past, but it breaks down very rapidly, within a few weeks, way before the end of the season.

It took me a day to get this system up and running except for connecting the reservoir barrel to the feeder bucket. Just waiting on a part. All my plants are doing well and can’t wait to see what they yield. Thanks for sharing this system it’s been a lot of fun getting it all together. I have six buckets hooked up and may consider a setting up a second system in the near future. I’d share a pic if I could. My cuke and watermelon perked right up once planted!

I’m just starting to get into self-watering containers for plants. And this idea is the best I have seen. Thank you for the tip. I do have one question. Would you be willing to write a more detailed PDF file for downloading? You could also add it to Archive.org